Engaging Cities: How Municipal Leaders can Mobilize Communities to Improve Public Schools

This report looks at five cities where mayors have engaged the public and built civic capacity around education reform, using the leverage of their office in strategic ways. The stories of Denver, Akron, Long Beach, Nashville, and New York identify and describe practical, high-yield strategies and solutions mayors are using and resources they have found or created. The report also includes an annotated list of resources for municipal leaders on public engagement in support of schools.

These studies of mayoral leadership in five cities were completed by the Annenberg Institute in cooperation with the Mayors’ Education Policy Advisors Network of the National League of Cities, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Institute staff conducted the research for the city cases and wrote the report.